Nov 29 2004
♫ Danny Schmidt
I discovered the music of Danny Schmidt when one of his songs, This Too Shall Pass (read the lyrics here), was played on Whole Wheat Radio last week. I immediately marked it as a favourite. A few days later I got around to visiting Danny Schmidt’s website where he currently has 12 songs available for download. I’ve been listening to these songs all day.
This is one of the best discoveries I’ve made through Whole Wheat Radio.
Danny Schmidt plays a subtle, soulful acoustic guitar at an unhurried pace (even when he’s playing fast), knows just when to pluck the harsh notes and when to let them sound off into silence. His song-writing is way, way up there. With a “voice expressive and world-weary as an Appalachian plowman,” he knows how to tell a story and turn a phrase that says more than I’d be lucky to say in a lifetime.
I’m not sure how to categorize his music. I hear mostly quiet acoustic and classical guitar, but also mandolin, banjo, Dobro guitar, accordian, cello, fiddle, and female harmonies (Cleopatra). The songs are thoughtfully written, but performed with both a playful reflection (Girlwhiskey) that had me tapping my knee (Sunny Days) and an unforced intimacy that had me edging in closer to hear every word (Already Done).
I was going to post links to the best of his songs I’ve heard so far, but the more I listen the harder it is to choose (the five songs I’ve already linked to aren’t bad, though).
Anyway, the point is, this guy’s good. He currently has three ablums: Live at the Prism Coffeehouse (1999), Enjoying the Fall (2001), and Make Right the Time (2003), all of which are available through his website. I highly recommend giving him a listen.
P.S., Read the comments of this post for details on where to find his CDs.
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Read the SHORT TREATISE ON WHERE NOT TO BUY CDs from his website and see why buying directly from the artist is always the best way to purchase CDs.
But if you can’t buy the CDs from his website for whatever reason, they’re also available through CD Baby and — only as a last resort — Amazon.
As I write this message, I’m listening to Already Done, and, man this song is really getting to me. It’s about the events of September 11th, 2001. I’ve never read, seen or heard anything that brings home the reality of that day so eloquently… Wow. How does someone write a song like this? Thank you Whole Wheat Radio.
I’m just listening to Danny for the first time now; wow. Reminds me of Phillip a bit, except Danny has MUCH better recording equipment.
I eventually ordered Danny Schmidt’s MAKE RIGHT THE TIME and his live album from CD Baby, and when I did, they sent me this message:
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, December 13th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!
DANNY SCHMIDT Update (December 24, 2004)
He writes (to everyone signed up to his email list, and I’m guessing it’s okay for me to quote this brief passage):
“I’ve been busy Busy BUSY at work on my new record for the last two months. We are in the middle of mixing right now — and it’ll get mastered sometime after the holidays. So I’m very excited that it’s coming down the home stretch — the process has been horrendous, but I’m really pleased with the results. Soon as we have things mastered, I’ll post up some sample MP3s for y’all. The album, in it’s entirety, won’t be released, proper-like, til sometime this spring.”
I’m looking forward to the new album. In the meantime, I’ll be checking his site for new MP3s. Good stuff.